The invention described herein was made in the course of, or under, a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
This invention relates to the preparation and use of certain thermoluminescent compounds for microwave and other type of radiation dosimetry. The purpose of the dosimeter is to provide a means of integrating microwave exposure received by an object, animal or person in a microwave field such as would exist in a research facility, a radar facility, an industrial microwave drying unit, or other such facilities. The materials could also be used for measuring doses from ionizing radiation including X and gamma rays.
Instruments presently used for determining microwave exposure levels utilize a probe which is attached to a bench monitor or hand-held meter. Such instruments do not integrate total exposure over a period of time, they require a power source to operate, and the probe and cord often disrupt the microwave field. This disruption results in a field which has different characteristics than when the probe and cord are not present.
There presently is no practical means of integrating microwave exposure. Existing instrumentation only measures levels of microwave radiation.